Leaked render outs Sony Xperia Z1 in black, white and purple

Xperia Z, with a side of bezels

Thanks to a wealth of pre-release leaks, there's not much we haven't seen of the Sony Xperia Z1 (or "Honami") at this point. But now there's an official-looking render of the device to confirm what we've been seeing for the past few months -- a phone very similar in design to the older Xperia Z, complete with hefty bezels.

The image from Chinese forum Digi-Wo shows the Z1 in the standard Sony tricolore -- black, white and purple -- the same colors used by the Xperia Z and Xperia Z Ultra. The back of the purple device shows off one of the Z1's most talked-about features, its 20-megapixel rear camera with Sony G Lens. On the inside, the Xperia Z1 is rumored to pack similar hardware to the Z Ultra -- a Snapdragon 800 CPU, 2 GB of RAM and microSD expandability.

Yeah, but why only purple?? I never quite understood that. Their last few flagships are only while, black and purple. How about blue, red, green, orange? Only making the purple one just seems so strange to consistently choose such an irregular color for a phone.

There is a bug(sort of) in the AC app. While trying to switch article on the pane at the top, i.e left to right, the action is cancelled if I don't do it exactly horizontal... A slight shifting downwards causes the swipe to refresh to start

This phone looks like crap. It almost has as much bezel as an iphone. It has on screen buttons so there is no reason to have 3 inches of bezel on the bottom. I was looking forward to this phone but you have to be some kind of moron to pick this bezel monster instead of the Note 3,G2,Moto X, Oppo N1 or Nexus 5. You really would have to be blind or have some sick fascination with ugly bezels, lmao

I don't think Sony should make carrier branded devices since they are inferior in all aspects compared to their unlocked versions. What they should do is to sell the Xperia line through their Sony Stores and also get retailers like Best Buy, B&H Photo Video, J&R and others onboard with a Sony section where unlocked Xperias can be bought with Sony Financing and reward points. Sony should be a more exclusive brand with a more Apple styled retailing experience and the carriers are unable to provide that, unfortunately. The Sony Store is great and a very nice place since they also offer a full accessory line with speakers, headsets, memory cards, MHL adapters and more.

The Z1 Honami deserves to be sold unlocked with LTE on AT&T and T-Mobile. It is also worth to mention that Sony has big markets to focus on already (Japan, Europe, India etc) and that the US isn't that important.

You mean that they should make 4 new versions, say C6906a AT&T, C6906b (T-Mobile, the 700 band disabled), C6907 (Sprint CDMA/LTE) and C6908 (Verizon CDMA/LTE) and top it off with ROM incompatibility, bloatware, branding and locked bootloaders followed by customers that complain that "Sony" doesnt update their devices?

That would be a very bad idea for the brand of Sony.

They should provide unlocked devices and AT&T and T-Mobile bands - the C6906 does it. Making CDMA versions destroy the standardization and should be avoided. Fortunately, Sony is only working on the C6906 for the US market and it has support for AT&T and T-Mobile LTE.

It is time to hand the power over to the consumers and that is done with unlocked, unbranded devices rather than letting the carriers destroy the products with their branding, bloatware and restrictions. Fortunately, Sony is following that rule in general and the C6906 is a step in the proper directing with its LTE radio.

And then, the US market isn't that important that it is a reason to let carriers destroy a device. India has a middle class that is equal to the entire US population. China and China Mobile has a subscriber base that is equal to the big four US carriers customer base doubled. Then we have Europa where the C6903 serves the whole EU with around 360 million of citizens. So the US market is just not that important that releasing crippled devices is a necessary move.

The majority of the smartphones released world wide is never released in the US and that is because of the up side down system with carriers acting as designers, makers, wholesalers and retailers. That has to change.

Yes providing 4 different versions has proven to be so disastrous in the past. This is exactly why Samsung is so far behind in not only US sales, but worldwide smartphone market share. it was a horrible misstep that should never be repeated.

Your wrong on that score.

Where you are right is in most nothing else you said. I was running HTC ONE X ROMs on my Rezound. Right now you can switch ROMs between various SGS3 models, just by changing the APNs. There is no reason to do it, but it can be done.

Where are you getting that there is only a C6906? As of right now we have seen nothing to prove or disprove that. In addition, a lot of the newer SoC support all radios, it is just a matter of software and proper programming. Look at the N4 with not LTE, oh wait, it does have it.

In addition, CDMA is not a US only invention. Here is a list, don't skip over the largest network in Japan BTW

It will not let me put the link in, but there are 77 other countries that have CDMA networks, including China, South Korea and India. This is not just a little chunk of the market you can ignore

THe last paragraph is the only thing that you have said that is right. Most smartphones are never released in the US and the carriers are too powerful. The rest you are hopeful, but skewed

When I first head about this phone, I was beyond excited. Now that we have official pictures and what not, it's horribly disappointing. It looks EXACTLY like the Xperia Z. Also, that damn bezel! I think the Nexus 7 has a smaller bezel than that thing. No reason for a bezel of that size with on screen buttons.

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